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The famous Cairns Amateurs racing carnival conducted by the Far North Queensland Amateur Turf Club has again been recognised as the event which injects the most money into the local economy each year.

An economic impact study carried out by Cummings Research shows the 2012 Cairns Amateurs Carnival contributed over $13 million to the Cairns economy,

Attendees to various events, race days and the corporate sector were surveyed to determine that the carnival saw an increase of 13.5% in visitors from outside the region providing more than $5.95 million in income from outside Cairns,

The carnival accounted for 15,600 visitor nights, a figure that has nearly doubled since the Amateurs began working with Events Queensland and the Queensland Government in 2010.

Sundry spending generated away from the track was over $6 million, an increase of $2.1 million from 2011.

The bstud revealed a feature of the 2012 Cairns Amateurs was the strong presence of visitors from Papua New Guinea.

Amateurs CEO Graham Thornton said the Cummings study again confirmed the importance of the annual carnival to the region.

"The results for 2012 show a strong rise in attendees at the races and a strong rise in visitors from outside the region," he said.

"We attribute the fantastic increase in results to the assistance from Events Queensland and the hard work done by our marketing team.

"Our hard work has resulted in winning the Major Festivals and Events category at the TTNQ Awards and a finalist in the state awards.

“The carnival is a huge boon for retailers, restaurateurs and a range of other industries.

"It’s the pinnacle racing event for the year with over $2 million generated within the racing industry supporting owners, trainers and jockeys.

“For more than half a century the Amateurs has been our biggest social party of the year and the Cummings study confirms that our biggest economic party is continuing to blossom.”

The 2013 carnival will be held on September 6 and 7.